Q: Is Johan Ackermann’s appointment a straight replacement for Lord Laurie, or will his responsibilities differ from his predecessor? (shedhead on Shedweb)

SV: They will differ slightly. With coaches it’s never quite a straight replacement because you’ve got to play to their strengths.

Laurie (Fisher) for example was technically very good, particularly in the breakdown area etc. but he probably wouldn’t be the guy who would be at the front of the queue in terms of man management and driving culture and those types of things whereas Johan is.

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First of all when you meet him, you’ll see he’s an incredibly impressive unit as my friends would call him.

He’s the biggest man I’ve ever seen in my life. When he says it’s Christmas, you start singing carols.

Laurie Fisher

His way with people is excellent so he will be doing a lot more around the culture, around the team bonding, around the trips that we’re doing and around more of the narrative around the playing group as well whereas Laurie didn’t do so much of that.

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Stephen Vaughan webchat

Q: What are the responsibilities of a head coach and that of a director of rugby?

David (Humphreys, Gloucester director of rugby) doesn’t coach. In layman’s terms, David reports into me but I also bring David to all the board meetings so David will almost be like the board member for the playing department really.

David has overall responsibility for the playing group but most of his time is spent on recruitment and retention so talking to our own players and other players and agents a lot, other coaches to know what’s going on in the world.

David Humphreys

He deals with our academy, making sure we’ve got the requisite number of players coming through the system which will not only help us in terms of the Gloucester culture we want going forward but also in terms of a cost perspective to get the model right you need in each position – marquee, middle range and then you want Academy players pushing through.

Strength and conditioning – David will have those guys reporting to him to make sure everything is on target and strategy is working there and medical, which is getting more important and nutrition.

So those are the key things that David will concentrate on.

Johan will deal with Tim Taylor, Trevor Woodman, Jonny Bell and the other coaches around what we want the team to set up like, what we want the team to play like.

He will deal with Alex Brown and logistics and that sort of stuff but effectively he’s responsible for results on a Saturday.

He’s not interested in the protein and amino acids and the caffeine gums and all the other stuff going on that people don’t see, he’s responsible for how we coach, when we coach, how long we coach for, one to ones with players, feedback and analysis and all about that.

He’s a real player’s man and we think he’s going to be fantastic for the group.

It’s a real and very obvious dividing line. Johan and David will speak a lot because Johan will ask saying, David will say yes, he’ll come to me and I’ll say maybe and we’ll take it from there.

Johan Ackermann

Q: When is Johan Ackermann likely to arrive?

He’s been over once, he’s coming over again very shortly when there’s a break.

Frustratingly the Lions are doing very well again this year. Joking aside, It’s a double edged sword.

We want him to come on the back of a very victorious season but on the other hand we want him here today but we’ve already got in place all of the plans that he would want in terms of pre-season, in terms of prep.

Johan’s already met with Dan Tobin (head of strength and conditioning), he’s met with all of the coaches, he’s met with the medical people, he’s met everybody.

A lot of the first three or four weeks are around fitness testing and screening anyway.

When he comes back over for a week, he’s going to take some training sessions and he’s going to really get involved.

When he comes over full-time, the latest he could come over is the second week of August – that’s if the Lions get to the final.

If they do he’s going to fly over to our camp in Portugal on the second week straight from South Africa or New Zealand, wherever it is at the time, and join up with myself and the guys for the pre-season camp so he’ll have plenty of time before the season starts anyway.